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  • Starting your business HOME
 

Planning your business

The first step is to write a business plan which will clarify your main business idea and define your long-term objectives. This is essential, as it will provide a blueprint for running the business and a series of benchmarks to check your progress against. It's also vital for convincing your bank and possibly key customers and suppliers to support you.


You will need to:

  • Assess whether there is a market for your business

  • Identify and assess the competition

  • Decide what makes your business different from the competition

  • Review your business's strengths and weaknesses

  • Identify how you will exploit the strengths and deal with the weaknesses

Writing your business plan

We have templates for the two areas that make up a business plan:

  • The business idea template - demonstrate the market potential for your business

  • The financial cashflow template - make projections for the costs and profit for your business in the early years

Business idea

Business start-up proposal template (Microsoft Word: 18KB - opens new window).
Business start-up proposal template(Text document: 7KB - opens new window).

Financial cashflow

Business start-up cash flow template (Microsoft Excel: 75KB - opens new window).
Business start-up cash flow template (Lotus 123: 44KB - opens new window).

See technical requirements for downloading the templates.

Next steps

Visit your local Halifax or Bank of Scotland branch for a complete application pack for start-up businesses

Email us to find out more about planning your business

Alternatively, you can call us on 0845 300 1956 Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-12pm

For a list of organisations that can help your business, see useful contacts